Because we have had such a focus on migrating all our core systems to the cloud, part of the benefit it generates is that we have the core system and, let's say, our document management system in the cloud. This means we have a behavioural footprint on the user. When there's a variation to that behavioural footprint, even though the person might be using the same credentials, we can start picking it up.
In real time, we're constantly enriching that identity graph for the individual. So when there's a geographic disparity between where the person logs on and what happens, that concern immediately begins.
The next aspect is around the devices. A device has health, and as long as the health is at the appropriate level, the individual can join whatever resources they need to. But from a conditional access point of view, and because there are automated playbooks in the background, our incident response team doesn’t have to come to an incident and think about which playbook to kick off.
Of course the last aspect we think about is data. Our law firm's brand promise is around ensuring client confidentiality and client privilege. The way we think about the curation of the data, the way we then employ multifactor authentication, and the way we think about using data loss prevention factor into the way we manage devices. All devices are managed. If your device isn't managed, then you can’t have client data on it. And for us, because we've become so clear about our information security management system, we're now in the process of pursuing a third-party certification: ISO 27001, 27002.
Could you tell me about the Webber Wentzel legal platform? What is it, and what’s the role of technology in bringing it all together?
Our firm is all about intellectual property: being able to bring together a person's academic knowledge, a lawyer's academic knowledge, and their behavioural knowledge. The behavioural element is something we get from our document management system. We knew the first point of leverage was to be able to get an accurate view of our people.
Our first platform in the cloud was Workday because we needed to take advantage of the innovation premium, and because we had six different applications for HR. Now we have one, and we’ve reduced the cost of management for all these platforms. Therefore, our teams can focus on helping the HR function, putting them in a position to initiate recruitment faster. This impacts our graduate recruitment process because we take attorneys straight out of university, and we put them through a process. And in two years' time, they will join us as a bona fide legal associate. We knew from a recruitment perspective, and from an induction perspective, it's one of the fundamental things we have to get right.